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Letter Fourteen: 

Eve and the Modern Woman

In our home we are very glad for the advances the Women’s Liberation Movement provided for women in our society. We lament, however, how the movement morphed with the sexual revolution of the 1960s, creating a radical feminism and ideology that is in direct conflict with Mother Church.

It is in the Church that true womanhood is preserved and honored, and given our culture, the Church is the only safe place for women. It is here where her identity, being the very last creation of God from the side of Adam, stands as the crown of creation. All eyes are on her beauty as she reflects the glory of God as image bearer. It is only when we see the feminine in this theological light that we begin to understand and appreciate the true nature of womanhood and her rightful place in the created order. She has power, she is power, but a power that can be perverted into idolatry when separated from God and His purpose for her.

Satan perverts Eve in the modern world, always offering her, like the old Eve, the fruit of autonomy, but always with the same result: naked and ashamed. The result is that women have become less respected than before, despite the big push for equality. In contrast, Jesus clothes women in righteousness through His Church.

John Paul II addresses this by saying, 

Women’s dignity has often been unacknowledged and their prerogatives misrepresented. They have often been relegated to the margins of society and even reduced to servitude. This has prevented women from truly being themselves and it has resulted in a spiritual impoverishment of humanity. 

We also lament the advent of contraceptives. The lie about contraceptives is that they free up women to experience sex freely “like men” with no consequences. Pope Paul VI prophesied in Humanae Vitae that contraception changes the way women think about themselves, and the way men think about women. Men, and even women, can no longer see the feminine as God designed it; all by removing responsibility from sex. 

The concept of “feminine” and the definition of womanhood has been convoluted to the point of massive gender confusion. Within this context of an aberrant understanding of true femininity, the Catholic Church with its male hierarchy appears hopelessly antiquated, and even anti-feminine, anti-woman. Actually, the opposite is true. It is because our culture has completely lost sense of the sacramental view, and especially marriage as sacrament, that we need to be reminded that marriage is essentially linked to Christ as bridegroom and the Church, His Bride. A priest, standing in persona Christi before the Church, representing Christ before the Bride of Christ, must be male, or else gender confusion will ensue. It all follows the complementary order set at creation with Adam and Eve.

The Church entrusted only to men the task of being an “icon” of his countenance as “shepherd” and “bridegroom” of the Church through the exercise of the ministerial priesthood. This in no way detracts from the role of women… all share equality in the dignity proper to the common priesthood based on baptism… but it is rather an expression of what is specific to being male and female. 

The Church honors Mary, the new Eve, as the first and foremost of all the saints who ever lived, even above the Apostles, and venerates her with her many titles, most majestically, “Queen of Heaven.” Following in her train is a myriad of women saints such as Mother Theresa, including doctors of the Church like Theresa of Avila. These women were as great-souled as any of the men saints, and the church knows this. The point is that long before the Women’s Liberation movement, the Church, from its very beginning, embraced her women saints in the same way as her men saints.

The women around our family tables possess the divine feminine. All women possess beauty and not merely physical beauty but above all spiritual beauty. Of course, our blessed Mother Mary, our New Eve, is the very personification of beauty.

Yours in Christ,

Father John Worgul

 

  1.  Pope John Paul II. Letter of Pope John Paul II to Women. Fourth World Congress on Women, Beijing. Boston, (MA: Pauline Books & Media, 1995).
  2.  Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (Encyclical Letter on the Regulation of Birth), July 25, 1968, §17.

 

Takeaway

The sexual revolution of the 1960s created a radical feminism that is in direct conflict with the power and dignity of the divinely-designed feminine. Historically, the Church has always venerated women as different but equal to men as both are made in the image and likeness of God.

 

 

 

Discussion Questions

    1. In your own words, how would you define the “divine feminine?”
    2. In the letter, women, as represented by the creation of Eve, are described as God’s crowning achievement, suggesting that women hold a special role in God’s creation. What is that role?
    3. Do you think society treats women in a way that shows we value this role?
    4. Do you believe the Church does?
    5. What are some ways women might fulfill this role in a marriage? Can you share a personal story about yourself, your spouse, or a role model to show an example?
    6. Share how this statement resonates with  and/or challenges you:
      • It is in the Church that true womanhood is preserved and honored, and, given our culture, it is the only safe place for women.

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